One of the consequences of the dynamic technological development is the rapidly increasing amount of electro-waste (WEEE, e-waste). Because there are no uniform legal regulations regarding the ways of collecting such waste, the separate-collection systems used in various areas are not homogeneous, and they usually also differ in effectiveness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the electro-waste collection system implemented in Lublin (the largest city in Eastern Poland). Taking into account the fact that the reliability of a collection system depends on the degree of its adaptation to the functions it performs, the evaluation consisted in determining how big a problem improper electro-waste segregation was. The article presents the results of a study of the causes of citizens’ failure to properly manage e-waste and indicates what measures should be taken to amend the problem. During two research steps, 347 pieces of e-waste with a total weight of 77.218 kg were found in the analyzed waste samples (0.33% of all samples). This means that the mechanisms of selective e-waste collection still do not work correctly, despite the ten years of Poland’s membership in the EU and implementation of European legislation in this area. The fact that residents throw away electric waste into municipal mixed waste containers poses a serious problem for proper waste management – even if only a part of the e-waste is disposed in this illegal way. This indicates the necessity of improving waste collection (more frequent waste reception, convenient access to e-waste containers, raising public awareness, etc.).
Waste disposal is imposed by the European Union under Treaty of Accession concerning waste management order. One of the waste disposal methods is thermal utilisation. The paper presents an investigation of sewage sludge briquettes used as a fuel in combustion process. The research study was carried out on samples taken from the Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bochnia. Briquettes with lime were formed. The analysis of the elementary chemical composition of municipal sewage sludge, the composition of the ash and thermogravimetric analysis were carried out. The results indicate that the prepared briquettes had sufficient fuel properties.
Lean is one of the systematic approach to achieve higher value for organizations through
eliminate non-value-added activities. It is an integrated set of tools, techniques, and principles
designed to optimize cost, quality and delivery while improving safety. In Vietnam,
industry waste management and treatment has become serious issue. The aim of this research
is to present the effective of Lean application for industrial wastes collecting and
delivery improvement. Through a case study, this paper showed the way of Lean tools and
principles applied for wastes management and treatment such as Value Stream Mapping,
Pull system, Visual Control, and Andon to get benefit on both economic and environment.
In addition, the results introduced a good experience for enterprises in Vietnam and other
countries have similar conditions to Vietnam in cost saving and sustainable development in
waste management.
In the process of determining the content of impurities, including fossil fuels, crude oil, coke, pitch, plastics, glass, slag, rust, metals, and rock dust, in charcoal and wood briquettes via microscopic examination, the question of the use of ashes from the combustion of grill fuels (taking the scale of the new national sport into account, commonly referred to as „weekend grilling”) was raised. Another reason for addressing this issue was the question regarding the use of organic additives to acidified soil (mineral) fertilizers submitted by one of the clients of the bituminous coal and reservoir rocks analysis laboratory. In addition, the manufacturer of gardening soil has also expressed an interest in an unconventional deacidifying agent; the introduction of a new product with a unique ingredient is considered as a chance to stand out from the competition. A review of the literature shows that attempts to use ashes obtained from the biomass combustion in power boilers have been made. However, due to the biomass composition and additives and pollutants used in biomass for energy purposes, the production of such mixtures has been dropped. Based on the data from numerous samples of grill fuel, which meet the requirements regarding the content of impurities set out in the PN-EN 1860-2 standard, the question of the possible use of ash obtained from charcoal and wood briquette grilling as a component for use in the production of acidified soil (mineral) fertilizers was discussed. The article will present the amount of material obtained based on the statistical sales of barbecue fuels based on the experimentally calculated ash mass resulting from the combustion of 1 kg of starting material. In addition, a logistic proposal for obtaining ash from individual grill users will be developed. On the day of the submission of the present work, the results of the chemical analysis of charcoal and wood briquettes subjected to the gasification process have not yet been obtained. However, based on the microscopic analysis, it can be concluded that the content of impurities in the examined samples is highly unlikely to prevent the use of the mentioned ashes in agriculture.
Municipal waste management has been an area of special interest of the European Commission (EC) for many years. In 2018, the EC pointed out issues related to municipal waste management as an important element of the monitoring framework for the transition towards a circular economy (CE), which is currently a priority in the economic policy of the European Union (EU). In the presented monitoring framework, 10 CE indicators were identified, among which issues related to municipal waste appear directly in two areas of the CE – in the field of production and in the field of waste management, and indirectly – un two other areas – secondary raw materials, and competitiveness and innovation. The paper presents changes in the management of municipal waste in Poland in the context of the implementation of the CE assumptions, a discussion of the results of CE indicators in two areas of the CE monitoring framework in Poland (production and waste management), and a comparison of the results against other European countries.
In Poland, tasks related to the implementation of municipal waste management from July 1, 2013 are the responsibility of the municipality, which is obliged to ensure the conditions for the system of selective collection and collection of municipal waste from residents, as well as the construction, maintenance and operation of regional municipal waste treatment installations (RIPOK). The municipality is also committed to the proper management of municipal waste, in accordance with the European waste management hierarchy, whose overriding objective is to prevent waste formation and limiting its amount, then recycling and other forms of disposal, incineration and safe storage. The study analyzed changes in the value of two selected CE indicators, i.e. (1) the municipal waste generation indicator, in the area of production and (2) the municipal waste recycling indicator, in the area of waste management. For this purpose, statistical data of the Central Statistical Office (GUS) and Eurostat were used. Data has been presented since 2014, i.e. from the moment of initiating the need to move to the CE in the EU. In recent years, there has been an increase in the amount of municipal waste generated in Poland as well as in the EU. According to Eurostat, the amount of municipal waste generated per one inhabitant of Poland increased from 272 kg in 2014 to 315 kg in 2017. It should be noted that the average amount of municipal waste generated in Poland in 2017 was one of the lowest in EU, with a European average of 486 kg/person. Poland has achieved lower levels of municipal waste recycling (33.9%) than the European average (46%). The reason for Poland’s worse results in the recycling of municipal waste may be, among others, the lack of sufficiently developed waste processing infrastructure, operating in other countries such as Germany and Denmark, and definitely higher public awareness of the issue of municipal waste in developed countries. Municipal waste management in Poland faces a number of challenges in the implementation of GOZ, primarily in terms of achieving the recycling values imposed by the EC, up to a minimum of 55% by 2025.
With the increase in the mass of municipal waste generated, the demand for facilities dealing with their development is increasing. The aim of the research was to determine environmental and anthropogenic factors affecting the location of waste management facilities and an attempt to indicate potential locations for selected waste management facilities in the communes of the Sądecko-Gorlicki region. The scope of work included: a review of existing waste management facilities in the studied region, acquisition of geodatabase for digital data, analysis of the distance between the waste management facilities and environmental or anthropogenic elements, and analysis of potential locations designated in the GIS based on the developed criteria.As a result of spatial analyzes, it was found that in the study area, there are 3 places of potentiallocations for installation of municipal solid waste treatment facilities.
The phase composition of the cement paste phase of concrete containing fly ash from circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) was studied. The motivation was to broaden the knowledge concerning the microstructure and the durability of concrete containing new by-products from the power industry. Several air-entrained concrete mixes were designed with constant water to binder ratio and with substitution of a part of the cement by CFBC fly ash (20%, 30% or 40% by weight). X-ray diffraction tests and thermal analysis (DTG, DTA and TG) were performed on cement paste specimens taken from concrete either stored in water at 18° C or subjected to aggressive freeze-thaw cyclic action. The evaluation of the phase composition as a function of CFBC fly ash content revealed significant changes in portlandite content and only slight changes in the content of ettringite. The cyclic freeze-thaw exposure did not have any significant influence on the phase composition of concrete with and without the CFBC fly ash.
Mining wastes are by-products generated during search, excavation and processing, both physical and chemical, of ores and other minerals. In 2017, wastes from group 01 constituted 60% of total wastes produced in Poland. According to the statistical data, approximately 92% of the waste generated during the excavation and processing of hard coal is economically reused. 30% of this waste used in industry and nearly 70% is used for the reclamation of the degraded industrial areas. At present, there is a tendency in the E uropean Union to shift from a linear economy to the Circular E conomy. The goal is to maintain economical value of the resources, among others, by their reuse in a productive way, which at the same time eliminates waste. One of the industrial branch where the ideals of a Circular E conomy can be implemented is the mining industry. Mining wastes may form one of the sources of anthropogenic minerals, as they belong to alternative aggregates. Deposits of anthropogenic minerals are considered sources of valuable raw materials which guarantee that the products made on their basis will be of high quality. The article presents the results of physico-chemical tests, the leachability of contaminations and phytotoxicity tests carried out on the basis of the selected mining waste in light of a Circular E conomy.
Waste management is a challenging problem for most of the countries. The current waste segregation and the collection method are not efficient and cost-effective. In this paper, a prototype is presented for smart waste management. It is also capable of waste segregation at the ground level and providing real-time data to the administrator. Impact and cost analysis of the deployment of smartbin is also presented considering one ward of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. It is clear from that deployment of this smartbin will save about 40% of the current expenditure for that ward.
The transition to circular economy requires diversifying material sources, improving secondary raw materials management, including recycling, and finally finding sustainable alternative materials. Both recycled and bio-based plastics are often regarded as promising
alternatives to conventional fossil-based plastics. Their broad application instead of fossilbased plastics is, however, frequently the subject of criticism because of offering limited
environmental benefits. The study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of
fossil-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) versus its recycled and bio-based counterparts. The system boundary covers the plastics manufacturing and end-of-life plastic management stages (cradle-to-cradle/grave variant). Based on the data and assumptions set
out in the research, recycled PET (rPET) demonstrates the best environmental profile out
of the evaluated plastics in all impact categories. The study contributes to circular economy in plastics by providing transparent and consistent knowledge on their environmental
portfolio.
The new legislative provisions, regulating the trade in solid fuels in our country, draw attention to the need to develop and improve methods and methods of managing hard coal sludge. The aim of the work was to show whether filtration parameters (mainly the permeability coefficient) of hard coal sludge are sufficient for construction of insulating layers in landfills at the stage of their closing and what is the demand for material in the case of such a procedure. The analysis was carried out for landfills for municipal waste in the Opolskie, Śląskie and Małopolskie provinces. For hard coal sludge, the permeability coefficient values are in the range of 10–8–10–11 m/s, with the average value of 3.16 × 10–9 m/s. It can be concluded that this material generally meets the criteria of tightness for horizontal and often vertical flows. When compaction, increasing load or mixing with fly ash from hard coal combustion and clays, the achieved permeability coefficient often lowers its values. Based on the analysis, it can be assumed that hard coal sludge can be used to build mineral insulating barriers. At the end of 2016, 50 municipal landfills were open in the Opolskie, Śląskie and Małopolskie Provinces. Only 36 of them have obtained the status of a regional installation, close to 1/3 of the municipal landfill are within the Major Groundwater Basin (MGB) range. The remaining storage sites will be designated for closure. Assuming the necessity to close all currently active municipal waste landfills, the demand for hard coal sludge amounts to a total of 1,779,000 m3 which, given the assumptions, gives a mass of 2,704,080 Mg. The total amount of hard coal sludge production is very high in Poland. Only two basic mining groups annually produce a total of about 1,500,000 Mg of coal sludge. The construction of insulating layers in landfills of inert, hazardous and non-hazardous and inert wastes is an interesting solution. Such an application is prospective, but it will not solve the problem related to the production and management of this waste material as a whole. It is important to look for further solutions.